2015

Christmas card making workshop

I held a Christmas card-making workshop today with Maki-san's Pastel art. Like each year this
workshop was well-received, especially by the children. We raised total of $100 in total and it was donated to Smile With Kids. We also had a ukulele performance
by Ukulove, and we all sang together some Christmas songs. Thank you so much for all those who came along for the workshop and/or for the performance!!

Christmas earring making workshop

We held a workshop for making Christmas origami earrings today. Unlike usual origami classes, we
used a tiny metalic paper to make Christmassy items such as Santa Claus and Candy cane, then applied some UV resin to harden them.. Thank you so much for all
the participants, and Mami-san for her instruction to make the resin accessories! The workshop fee that we collected will be donated to Smile With Kids as part of their fund to run a refreshment
camp for the children in Fukushima.

Peace Lutheran College Spring Fair origami stall

Tonight was the school fete for the school I work at, so I held an origami stall like each year. My
students and I made nearly 150 things before and during the event and sold them all with the price of $1 each! We also sold some of the origami earrings.
Wow we made a lot of money just in one night! It is a great feeling to work with students to help the school's fundraising for our own school community. I really love doing this with my lovely
students!smile
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Centenary Lakes nature walk

Nature walk at Centenary Lakes today. It was a great success, and we really enjoyed
discovering the nature. The family liked the quizzes in the activity book that we made.

Origami and colour therapy workshop

We had a charity workshop at Maki's house to raise fund for Smile With Kids. This time we had a
combined workshop of colour therapy and making origami crystals. They made an origami crystal with the same colour as their chosen colour bottle, and
wrote down the messages that they received from the bottle.
Total of $178.00 was raised from this workshop and will be used for the next refreshment camp for the children in Fukushima. Thank you for all the people who participated!

Gimuy Fish Festival origami stall

It was an honour to be invited to the local Indigenous community event to educate the
importance of caring our environment. I ran an origami stall for the children to promote origami as a way to reuse paper materials for their art & craft activity. Thank you to so many people
who came to my stall, and also to the volunteer helpers who helped me throughout the day.

Japanese language immersion course

I've finished the four days private language immersion course. It's amazing how
kids can absorb another language when they are exposed to it continuously for several days and start to speak it with their own will. I've used the
Miyazaki's anime movie "My Neighbor Totoro" to teach the Japanese greetings, expressions, culture and people's life. It's a fabulous movie for Japanese teachers to teach these things while
entertaining kids. We made origami Totoro at the end and we were all happy♪ I want to run this course again ;)

Smile With Kids charity event

Smile With Kids held the second fundraising event at Maki's house in Kewarra Beach. There were
various services offered by volunteers from the community, such as massage, Pastel Art, Ukulele, Numerology, and sales of hand-made materials. I offered to
teach origami and also sold some hand-made origami earings made by my friend. I also took part in the Ukulele performance with Ukulove members, and played the piano. It was a very enjoyable and
successful event; we raised $1016.25 in total!! It will be used for the next year's Fukushima Kids' refreshment camp program. Thank you for all the people who came over and helped us! Also a big
thanks to Maki-san who organised this event all by herself.

Smile With Kids refreshment camp

We had visitors from Fukushima prefecture of Japan as part of their refreshment camp program. This program was arranged by the NPO group Smile With
Kids.

On the day we had these visitors, we had a special assembly to learn about what is happening in Fukushima after the 2011 tsunami and the nuclear disaster. We
also raised money in various ways; selling the paper cranes that students had made, a silent auction of one-thousand-cranes, and wearing free dress in the theme of Japan (flag colour, traditional
costume, etc). Amazingly we raised the total of＄1,232.25altogether!! What a huge difference we can make as a community, even beyond the countries.

Japan Day of Hope

The annual tsunami memorial charity event was held again this year to raise fund for the victims
from 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Origami Cairns took part in it to hold the children's activity booth, and called for a help to make paper crane straps
for further fundraising for Smile With Kids later on at my school. Thank you for many people who came along and helped us!